Last year, scientists announced the first-ever direct detection of gravitational waves, confirming the existence of the famous space-time ripples predicted by Albert Einstein a century ago.
Janna Levin, a professor of physics and astronomy at Columbia University, will discuss the epic discovery during a public lecture tonight (May 3) at 7 p.m. EDT (2300 GMT) at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Ontario, Canada. You can watch her talk live in the window below, courtesy of the Perimeter Institute:
You can also watch Levin's talk, which is called "Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space," directly at the Perimeter Institute's website.
From the Perimeter Institute:
"More than a billion years ago, two black holes collided. In the final second of their long life together, the black holes banged out a rhythm like mallets on a drum, creating gravitational waves — ripples in the shape of space-time.
"One hundred years ago, Albert Einstein predicted the existence of such waves, though it seemed improbable — if not outright impossible — that we'd ever be able to actually detect them. They were long considered too faint for any earthbound experiment to measure.
"Undaunted, experimentalists were determined to measure these Lilliputian ripples, and after many decades of work and collaboration, they built LIGO — the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory. This incredible sophisticated and sensitive instrument was made to listen for the beat of that distant drum. In 2015, a billion years after the two black holes collided, their waves rippled through the LIGO detectors in Louisiana and Washington.
"With these remarkable new observatories, we can now capture the soundtrack to accompany the silent movie of the history of our universe.
"During her live public lecture webcast at Perimeter Institute on May 3, Janna Levin of Columbia University will explain this 'discovery of the century' and what it means for the future of science."
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